posted at 4:42 pm on August 21, 2012 by Allahpundit

Maybe ObamaCare won’t be so bad, guys. A couple of tweaks to IPAB, a little fine-tuning of those state insurance exchanges, and who knows? We might be able to duct-tape this boondoggle together and keep it aloft for a decade or two. If anyone can make it work, it’s President Romney, right?

Jennifer Duffy of Cook waves bye-bye to the prospective 51st vote for repeal:

#MOSen: moved the race to Likely Democrat.As long as Akin is running, it is unwinnable for Republicans. If he exits, it’s back to Toss Up.

Ed and ConArtCritic, who analyzes polls for Ace’s site, argue persuasively that the PPP poll this morning showing Akin up by a point is essentially garbage, as it’s based on a ridiculously lopsided Republican sample. (PPP is Kos’s pollster; go figure that they’d churn out some encouragement for Akin to stay in the race at a decisive moment.) A more realistic turnout model in Missouri would have McCaskill up comfortably by six or seven points, and that’s before the Democratic ad machine, now fully loaded with disapproving quotes from Akin’s fellow Republicans, goes to work on him.

But it’s apparently useless trying to point this out to the candidate: Paul Ryan called Akin personally yesterday to vent his disapproval and, just as I’m writing this, with less than two hours before the withdrawal deadline expires, Romney has issued a statement flatly calling on Akin to quit the race. Problem is, there’s really nothing the party can offer him to make it worth his while to go. Read this short but smart piece at Salon listing the many reasons Akin has to keep going. He’s old; he’s still got a more or less 50/50 shot at the Senate; he may or may not think his primary victory was divinely ordained, etc etc etc. If he were a younger pol, the GOP leadership might be able to tempt him with the promise of some plum position down the road if he plays ball now. As it is, the one and only argument his critics have is to ask him to put conservatism first and step aside to maximize our chances of repealing ObamaCare. You can see from his Huckabee interview this afternoon how seriously he takes that argument. Charlie Crist’s still the most nakedly careerist politician I’ve ever seen, but you’ve got to hand it to Akin: Even Crist never put his own ambitions above his party’s top agenda items.

He can still quit after today’s deadline passes, but to do so he’ll need a court order. Can he get one? As Nate Silver notes, four of the six justices of the Missouri Supreme Court are Democratic appointees, and Akin has no stronger supporters in America right now when it comes to staying on the ballot than Democrats. Meanwhile, if Priebus and Cornyn are serious about withholding money from this guy in the assurance that conservatives will blame Akin for the eventual loss, not them, I think they’re kidding themselves. Once it’s clear that he’s in the race to the bitter end, the calculus among many of his critics will shift from “he’s a moron” to “he’s a moron but he’s our moron,” such that if the RNC and NRSC cut him off, the dreaded Beltway RINO establishment will be blamed for not having done everything they could to make the best of a bad hand. (That would be less likely if McCaskill utterly crushed him on election day, but she’s sufficiently weak that she probably won’t win by more than four or five points. He’ll be competitive, sort of, down the stretch.) Never mind that the money they save might prove critically useful elsewhere; once Akin proves he’s a “fighter,” willing to tell both Democrats and Republicans to go to hell, that’ll earn him a certain base of populist support that will demand financial support from GOP treasurers on his behalf. And if they don’t provide it, they’ll be scapegoated, not him.

We’re 80 minutes from the deadline as I write this. While we wait to see if today’s pledge not to quit holds, here’s Rush Limbaugh via the Daily Rushbo.

Governor Scott Walker released the following statement today calling on U.S. Representative Todd Akin (R-MO) to remove himself from his U.S. Senate bid to unseat Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO).

“Representative Todd Akin’s comments were ignorant at best and completely outrageous. For the good of his state and for the good of his party, he should step aside immediately and allow someone else to run.”

Holding McCaskill’s seat is job one for Democrats, but obviously they want more out of Akingate. A lot more.

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Comments

Heard him on Hannity talking about “standing on principles” out one side of his mouth, the PPP poll out the other side of his mouth. Hannity told him about the heavy +R sample and time it takes news to catch up with polling – he was unphased. Hannity brought up the guy Akin once tried to talk out of a campaign because of a DUI – he said it was because he broke the law.

Tea partiers are notoriously unrepresented in polling because they do not participate in polls (generally). Right now, nobody has a real clue about the POTUS general election except by inference via Jugears ratings in the polls. Same is true in any state where the incumbant donkey is 45% or less.

McCaskill is 43% yesterday. I would be shocked if that changed more than 1% in polling after this bruhaha.

Try not to listen too closely to the LSM. 24 million people heard Rush say that he basically doesn’t approve of this stampede. I can safely say that those 24 million talk to at least 24 million others about what they hear on Rush.

People in Missouri must be really stupid to be swayed like this. I’ll drive around that state instead of through it.

SirGawain on August 21, 2012 at 5:43 PM

Screw you SirGawain

The people that have to vote this guy in are all in Missouri right? So my question is…how many people on this post are from Missouri and do we really know what the people of that state think?
Tearing hair out and letting spittle fly won’t help here. We just have to hope that if he stays in he wins and on top of that we have to hope he has learned to put his brain in gear before he thinks. Most people in this world have a least one hairbrained idea in their head and I hope this is his worst one.

SgtRed on August 21, 2012 at 5:44 PM

I voted for John Brunner after figuring out that the Lady of Darkness funded about a million and a half to Akin. That and Sarah Steelman has a pretty bad reputation here in Missouri. I now foind out why that was the case these three days past.

whose name is not printed on the ballot (see 115.453(4,5,6) RSMo); and
who has filed a declaration of intent to be a write-in candidate for election to office with the proper election authority prior to 5:00 p.m. on the second Friday immediately preceding the election day. It is not necessary to file a declaration of intent if there are no candidates on the ballot for that office. (see 115.453 (4) RSMo)

And:

Are write-in votes counted for every name that is written in?

No. If a candidate is on the ballot for an office, write-in votes are counted only for the candidates who have filed a declaration of intent to be a write-in candidate with the proper election authority. (Section 115.453(4), first sentence) If no candidate is on the ballot for an office, it is not required to file a declaration of intent and votes are counted for every name properly written in. (Section 115.453(4) RSMo, last sentence)

MO Repubs gonna have to dig up a crusty old well-known R to run as an I for the good of the country. How old is Danforth? Ashcroft got sick as AG so probably not. Is there any R woman known statewide who could do it? Help me Jesus, please. (If Akins can do God we can do Jesus.)

The people that have to vote this guy in are all in Missouri right? So my question is…how many people on this post are from Missouri and do we really know what the people of that state think?

Tearing hair out and letting spittle fly won’t help here. We just have to hope that if he stays in he wins and on top of that we have to hope he has learned to put his brain in gear before he thinks. Most people in this world have a least one hairbrained idea in their head and I hope this is his worst one.

SgtRed on August 21, 2012 at 5:44 PM

Well said. He may in fact be an utter fool; the Republicans routinely run 2 or 3 of that ilk for the senate every cycle and have shown an alarming tendency to nominate utter fools for the presidency. Democrats can easily match those numbers too. The main thing is to get a senate seat away from a liberal hack and into conservative control.

One other thing. Even if the GOP has majority control of the Senate such control will be dependent on RINOs, at least a half dozen. Since the Dems will surely filibuster Obamacare repeal it will take 60 votes to invoke cloture–meaning deals will have to be struck with the Lisa Murkowskis of this world. (Unless some Reconciliation legerdemain is resorted to. Don’t know if the RINOs have the cojones or not.)

Yes, I am interested in what people in MO are hearing – how they will vote – etc

djl130 on August 21, 2012 at 5:45 PM

I’ll vote for him. Most that would post here would do the same, whether they are ready to admit it or not. But we’re not who you have to worry about. Claire was done for, certainly, but this isn’t that deep red of a state to sustain this damage. People that wouldn’t turn out before, will now, and they aren’t doing it to vote for him.

I think Akin will hang close enough to be a total embarrassment to Claire, but that’s about the ceiling, and that’s assuming he’s done talking (outside of saying Obamacare repeatedly)the next 11 weeks.

What I think you’ll see is polls crater for 2 weeks or so until this completely saturates – to around 10-15 points at the bottom. Then it will flatline until Oct, where the gap closes at the end (again assuming he only repeats Obamacare). He’ll still keep this in single digits at the end, I would guess, which indicates how much of a lost opportunity this is.

I’m confused, too. Why is barack obama having a rapist introduce him at the democrat national convention. Or was that a “non-legitimate” rape? Or did those women lie about being raped? Do women do that — lie about rape? Would barack like to clarify his position on women lying about rape? When do they do that? How often? Didn’t he say “rape is rape?” And since he did, I have to ask again: Why is barack obama having a rapist introduce him at the democrat national convention?

Rational Thought on August 21, 2012 at 5:30 PM

superb rebuttal, as usual (completely forgot about cigar Bill and his manners with ladies state and country-wide)…not that libfree deserved a response to his usual garbage…

jimver on August 21, 2012 at 5:48 PM

Well, with Akin choosing to stay in, and the democrats planning to go full “rape is rape,” there will be no choice on the part of Romney-Ryan but to remind folks that barack is being introduced at the DNC by a rapist. Barack absolutely SHOULD have to answer for that. If he believes ALL rape victims are to be believed, that they ALL have Absolute Moral Authority, then he is cavorting with a rapist — asking that rapist to save his failing campaign, in fact. And don’t think for a minute that Juanita Brodderick or Paula Jones won’t be making an appearance before this ugly, sordid democrat game is played out. Fire with fire. It’s the only way to beat the dirty dems.

Well, we shall see. Wonder if it would just be better to ignore his Candidacy and put money elsewhere. Spend not a penny and distance ourselves from this nut? Running a write in would probably be pointless and cost money that could be better spent…

John Brunner (who should have won if Democrats hadn’t crossed over and voted for Achin’ to help Clairebama) needs to announce ASAP that he is running as an Independent. He is a successful businessman with some dollars, and the GOP should throw as much support behind him as they can.

Progressives plunged the knife deep into our Republic a century ago, again and again. Direct election of Senators, Woman’s suffrage and the creation of ‘victim class’ politics, Personal Income Tax, anti-Capitalist BS in the guise of ‘Trust busting’. While their ideological cohorts were carrying out their glorious communist revolution in Russia, our own elitists were busy laying the foundations of our nation’s collapse. Now we see it all playing out, in our headlines 30 times a day.
This Akin turmoil is but one glaring example of it all.

The guy is certifiable. It’s all about him. He thinks he can win. He feels entitled to the nomination. And he doesn’t give a damn what the consequences are of his impending loss to McCaskill. I loathe this douchebag.

John Brunner (who should have won if Democrats hadn’t crossed over and voted for Achin’ to help Clairebama) needs to announce ASAP that he is running as an Independent. He is a successful businessman with some dollars, and the GOP should throw as much support behind him as they can.

The worst part about it is that the correct answer was so simple: “If you have that many babies being aborted from rape and incest, then you have a much bigger problem: YOU HAVE TOO MANY PEOPLE PRACTICING RAPE AND INCEST!” That’s all he had to say. Put the pro-choice people into defensive mode and you win. My God.

Well, with Akin choosing to stay in, and the democrats planning to go full “rape is rape,” there will be no choice on the part of Romney-Ryan but to remind folks that barack is being introduced at the DNC by a rapist. Barack absolutely SHOULD have to answer for that. If he believes ALL rape victims are to be believed, that they ALL have Absolute Moral Authority, then he is cavorting with a rapist — asking that rapist to save his failing campaign, in fact. And don’t think for a minute that Juanita Brodderick or Paula Jones won’t be making an appearance before this ugly, sordid democrat game is played out. Fire with fire. It’s the only way to beat the dirty dems.

Rational Thought on August 21, 2012 at 5:55 PM

Good advice. Hammer relentlessly and make it personal. Show them up for the transparent hypocrites they are and shove it in their media hacks’ faces.

Unfortunately RINOs are in control of the party, so this remains a fantasy.

Even if the GOP has majority control of the Senate such control will be dependent on RINOs, at least a half dozen. Since the Dems will surely filibuster Obamacare repeal it will take 60 votes to invoke cloture–meaning deals will have to be struck with the Lisa Murkowskis of this world. (Unless some Reconciliation legerdemain is resorted to. Don’t know if the RINOs have the cojones or not.)

spiritof61 on August 21, 2012 at 5:52 PM

No deal. It was ruled by SCOTUS to be a tax so it only needs 51 votes to pass. I’ve been laughing my azz off about how political Roberts is and how nobody sees it. He voted specifically to agitate the base to get out and retake the government. If a donkey/lib did this, we’d be screaming for his/her head. The donkeys can’t gripe because they “won.”

Chickification of our politics. The erection and the eruption of the reactionary politics of emotion. Just glaring proof of why the 17th and 19th amendments were terrible mistakes. Progressives plunged the knife deep into our Republic a century ago, again and again. Direct election of Senators, Woman’s suffrage and the creation of ‘victim class’ politics, Personal Income Tax, anti-Capitalist BS in the guise of ‘Trust busting’. While their ideological cohorts were carrying out their glorious communist revolution in Russia, our own elitists were busy laying the foundations of our nation’s collapse. Now we see it all playing out, in our headlines 30 times a day.
This Akin turmoil is but one glaring example of it all.

“Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan tried to distance themselves from the remark — but the fact is they’re in lockstep with Akin on the major women’s health issues of our time,” Fluke wrote in the email to supporters.

Fluke rocketed to national fame earlier this year at the height of the debate over federally-funded contraception when radio host Rush Limbaugh called her a “slut” following her testimony in front of a congressional panel.

Fluke pointed to the GOP platform committee adding an anti-abortion plank in their party platform as evidence for Romney.

“Just this morning, the Republican Party voted to include the ‘Human Life Amendment’ in their platform, calling for a constitutional ban on abortions nationwide, even for rape victims. Several Romney supporters and advisers stood silently by while this vote took place, and the Los Angeles Times reports that the platform ‘was written at the direction of Romney’s campaign,’” Fluke wrote.

“This controversy is not an accident, or a mistake, or an isolated incident. It’s a reflection of a Republican Party whose policies are dangerous for women,” Fluke wrote. “I’m even more resolved to continue the fight to make sure every single woman — and every man who cares about the women in his life — knows exactly what’s at stake in this election. The Republicans are frighteningly clear on these issues.”

“There is a clear choice for women in this election: Stand with President Obama,” Fluke wrote.

The Romney campaign has tried to distance themselves from the controversy, calling on Akin to drop out of the race and condemning the comments — all while GOP leaders try to contain the damage to their brand among female voters.

I listened to this guy on Hannity tonight and he just doesn’t get it. He thinks he has a message, a winning message no less. He actually believes he can get this message out. Let’s face it, he has no clue what a desperate candidate is going to do to his message.

The Democrats know, if they lose the Senate, Obamacare is screwed. They are going to do everything in their power (and it ain’t gonna be pretty) to keep those seats. Rep. Akin just made Missouri a lot easier to hold and his message is going to be drowned out by everything that’s thrown at him.

He sounds like he has a good heart and, in a different year might even win (if he could keep his mouth shut) but he’s going to cost the Republicans this seat if he stays in.

Even if the GOP has majority control of the Senate such control will be dependent on RINOs, at least a half dozen. Since the Dems will surely filibuster Obamacare repeal it will take 60 votes to invoke cloture–meaning deals will have to be struck with the Lisa Murkowskis of this world. (Unless some Reconciliation legerdemain is resorted to. Don’t know if the RINOs have the cojones or not.)

spiritof61 on August 21, 2012 at 5:52 PM
No deal. It was ruled by SCOTUS to be a tax so it only needs 51 votes to pass. I’ve been laughing my azz off about how political Roberts is and how nobody sees it. He voted specifically to agitate the base to get out and retake the government. If a donkey/lib did this, we’d be screaming for his/her head. The donkeys can’t gripe because they “won.”

Pure genius.

platypus on August 21, 2012 at 6:02 PM

And if the GOP got to 50 in the senate, and took the WH, Ryan, as VP and president of the senate, can cast tie-breaking votes.

I’m so sick of hearing about the double standard. This has nothing to do with a double standard…what he said was offensive in its stupidity…anyone that stupid should NOT be in the senate, nor be in ANY position of authority. You know what WAS a shameful double standard? The “macacca” kerfuffle. You could compare that to any of Joe Biden’s gaffes, and yet Allen lost his senate seat and Joe has repeatedly been given a pass, with the excuse of it being just Joe being Joe. This Akin Neanderthal is going to lose no matter what, so I hope he loses spectacularly and is shunned forever.

I don’t get it. People are saying this guy is a scumbag because he wants to stick by his principles? On Hannity he said the political calculations weren’t driving his decision. His principles were. Why are they all pressuring him to get out? Why don’t they just ignore it. That is what the Democrats do and guess what—-it just goes away. I lost a lot of respect for Hannity while listening to that interview. It really surprises me how few truly decent people are out there. Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh—even though Mark recommended that he get out. I hope he stays in and I hope the Missouri people are smart enough to vote for him. One day you will all get what you are clamoring for—leaders without honor.

He sounds like he has a good heart and, in a different year might even win (if he could keep his mouth shut) but he’s going to cost the Republicans this seat if he stays in.

bflat879 on August 21, 2012 at 6:04 PM

He sounded like a nut. If it hadn’t been a three way race he would have never won. Let him try to raise money on his own. Anytime the Dems try to connect Akins to one of our Candidates they need to fire right back at them…

I don’t get it. People are saying this guy is a scumbag because he wants to stick by his principles? On Hannity he said the political calculations weren’t driving his decision. His principles were. Why are they all pressuring him to get out? Why don’t they just ignore it. That is what the Democrats do and guess what—-it just goes away. I lost a lot of respect for Hannity while listening to that interview. It really surprises me how few truly decent people are out there. Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh—even though Mark recommended that he get out. I hope he stays in and I hope the Missouri people are smart enough to vote for him. One day you will all get what you are clamoring for—leaders without honor.

LL1960 on August 21, 2012 at 6:07 PM

He didn’t leave his phone lines and emails on. You really think he kept a line open to God just because he said so?

Is Todd Akin the only pro-life person in Missouri? No, he isn’t. God loves Sarah Steelman, John Brunner, Jim Talent, the guy at the 7-11 too. All of which would win office, and actually get to effectively apply those God loving principles.